Di-licious

Every now and then you experiment in the kitchen and create something magical. This is one of those moments. I first whipped up these brownies for a BBQ to thank mates for helping shift a very heavy steel workbench. After a lot of beer and wine you don’t want a fussy dessert. It’s much better to have something that satisfies the sweet craving and can be eaten with fingers. I shared the recipe on the blog at the time and they were really popular. Then I accidently killed my blog and the recipe was lost... And then I lost the photos..... This weekend I'm catching up with friends, one of whom has been begging me to re-share the recipe on the new Di-licious blog. So Sandy, this one's for you. This brownie is a bit different from regular brownies in that there’s no melted chocolate in the batter, just some chocolate chips.  And raspberries. I used white chocolate chips because that’s what I had in the pantry. You could easily substitute ...

Everybody needs a good basic chocolate cake recipe and they certainly don't get any easier than this. Put all of the ingredients into a bowl and mix it together for 3 minutes. That’s it. No fancy baking super powers required (and certainly a lot easier than a packet mix!) Better still it tastes great, cuts like a dream, and it makes two loaf cakes so you can serve one up for morning tea and pop the other one in the freezer for a rainy day. Did I mention that it's a prize winning recipe too? This darling little cake won me first prize in the Chocolate Cake category at the 2013 Mornington Peninsula Group CWA Competition. Just sayin..... Recipe: 1st Prize Chocolate Cake Recipe adapted from Merle Parish’s two chocolate cake recipes in Merle’s Kitchen (2012) Ingredients 1¾ cups self raising flour, sifted 1¼ cups caster sugar ½ cup cocoa, sifted 2 tsp bicarbonate soda, sifted pinch salt 125g unsalted butter, softened and chopped up 2 eggs, room temperature, ...

When decorating birthday cakes, I love finding a way to make them a little less ordinary.  My almost mother in law (Mr Di-licious and I haven’t made it down the aisle, yet) loves quilling . I’ve never done quilling myself but I thought it would make an excellent design feature for her 70 th birthday cake. Quilling is essentially rolled up strips of paper, arranged into beautiful patterns. I figured it wouldn’t be too hard to emulate the effect with thin strips of fondant.  A couple of attempts later, I realised I really needed to use gumpaste. The strips need to be rolled out really thin, allowed to dry slightly and then rolled up– quilled. I made a variety of different shapes in different colours as well as a stylised 7-0. The final design didn’t follow an existing pattern – it just sort of happened.  If you look closely you can see flower shapes in there. The tablecloth idea was actually a work around.  Originally I’d planned to ...

This week Olive and I went on an eBay road trip to pick up her 'new' tap shoes. I could have just had them posted but I had an ulterior motive.  The pick-up location, although right over the other side of town, was reasonably close to my old neighbourhood which happens to be a mecca for great food and coffee. After picking up the tap shoes (and bonus ballet shoes the seller thoughtfully included) I was looking forward to lunch.  But as soon as I pulled out of the car park, the sky turned black and the rain started to pour.  Bugger.  I kissed my lovely lunch dreams goodbye and did what any sane parent of a three year old would do in the same situation - I headed for the nearest shopping centre with an underground car park. Ten minutes later I was sitting in the food court eating  ricepaper rolls while Olive got Happy (I think you know what I'm talking about).  Not quite the foodie experience I'd been hoping for. Every cloud has a silver li...

I've been missing in action.  The winter school holidays started and all of a sudden I found myself out of the house for two weeks. Away with girlfriends, staying with family, away from my laptop and reliable internet and out of mobile phone range. Excuses, excuses! In my rush to go gallivanting around the countryside, I forgot to show off the third birthday cake I made for Mr Di-licious - the Country Music cake! It's true Mr Di-licious loves both kinds of music as well as Earl Grey Tea and chocolate - so this cake for his party at home with a few friends was the perfect opportunity for me to have a little fun at his expense. This chocolate cake (using my favourite chocolate party cake recipe) is filled with salted dulce de leche and covered in dark chocolate ganache. The blue base tile, numbers and 'wooden paling' letters are made out of fondant.  The letters are hand cut and textured with a leaf veiner. I used biscuit cutters to cut out the numbers...

We’re celebrating one year of Di-licious Cupcakes and now it’s time for me to give you your present – my Triple Chocolate Party Cake recipe. This sweet, moist chocolate cake is the perfect base for a large celebration cake , cupcakes or as this simply elegant cake with cream and ganache.  It’s truly a cake for every celebration. A hint of coffee helps to temper the sweetness of the cake and lets the chocolate flavour shine.  The semi-sweet chocolate cream and chocolate ganache makes it a show stopper (just don’t tell anyone how easy it was to make!) The cake is also perfectly happy to be baked ahead of time and frozen.  In fact it’s better if you do; it’s easier to trim and tort the cake when it’s still semi-frozen.  Likewise you can make the ganache ahead of time to make decorating a breeze. Could this be the world’s best chocolate cake?  Recipe: Triple Chocolate Party Cake Serves 4-6  Recipe adapted from Donna Hay   Recip...